New Whistler website offers local government and loonie race links By Loreth Beswetherick It has been estimated about 20,000 new web sites are launched around the world each week and Whistler is no stranger to the trend. Yet another fledgling site officially joins the on-line offerings from the resort town July 1 but, this one promises something new. Graphic designers Craig Jenkins and Duane Hepditch, partners in Velocity Media, have launched www.gotowhistler.com with a view to making the site "the" premier resource for Whistler information, events and activities. Other Whistler websites, like Janice Pickwell’s Whistler Networks and Shane Bennett’s Whistler Web, vie for the same honours but gotowhistler is the first to offer links to local government. Hepditch said the site concept is two-fold. One aspect will focus on providing all the information anyone who wants to visit Whistler would need, including an on-line reservation system for all the major Whistler hotels through links with the Whistler Data Corporation. Visitors can also buy ski passes with their reservations packages. The second aspect is what Hepditch and Jenkins call the "locals’ sub site." This section highlights current news and events through links with Pique Newsmagazine. The site also hosts the Resort Municipality of Whistler’s home page, which includes council briefs and agendas and municipal Y2K update information. Minutes from council meetings can be downloaded from this link. The gotowhistler site dishes up village and mountain webcams, TV listings and schedules, venues and results for loonie races. And that’s for starters; plans for the next six months include the posting of other local race results; Year 2000 and 2001 festival activities and calendar information; a museum page and a facility to send electronic postcards. The site will be updated weekly. Hepditch and Jenkins’ first collaborative effort was the Pique website launched in September last year. They have since created the sites for WinterStart, the World Ski and Snowboard Festival and have just completed a site for the spa at the Chateau Whistler. They are currently working on the Joyride 99 site which they say will showcase several mountain biking events from the world technical freeriding championships.
